Read the excerpt from "Fern” in Cane.

We walked down the Pike with people on all the porches gaping at us. "Does it make you mad?” She meant the row of petty gossiping people. She meant the world.

Which stylistic element most contributes to the pessimistic tone of this excerpt?

A. The use of varying sentence length
B. The Strong Diction of "gaping"
C. The use of the question mark
D. The comparison of gossiping people to the world